 Ever notice how the green-eyed monster looks a little like a zombie? If you're a writer and if you even have one writer as a friend, I'm certain, at one time or another, your eyes have turned green. (The first step to recovery is admitting it, so just nod and say yes). And I'm not talking the pretty kind of green either. I'm talking the algae, swamp colored, snotty nose kind of green--nasty. As human beings, envy and jealousy is part of our nature. Just like sadness and happiness. We are full of emotions. Just some aren't as nice as others and some can down-right cripple us. Envy and jealousy aren't good emotions unless it spurs us forward to do better, write better, and become better. But how often does that happen? Umm . . . how about never. For the most part, envy and jealousy tightens our heart, pulls us inward, and we become bitter and depressed: Look how good he's doing. He's sold a kazillion books. People love him. He has an agent and a publishing contract. He's a best seller. Oprah is coming out of retirement to talk about his book! Dang it! He's getting everything I ever wanted . . . there's nothing left for me. I HATE him. I'm going to leave a bad review on his book. Yeah, that will show him. Take that, you dream-snatching jerk! You want me to retweet you last review? Ha,ha, ha--NO. But I will spread a rumor. Anytime we see someone achieving more and receiving more, out pop the green eyes. It's not just writers; it's everyone. (I live just below some mega huge houses. Houses that average 5,000 square feet or more. Houses with swimming pools and indoor full-size racquetball/basketball courts. Yes, my eyes became green. So no, it's not just writers). But I do think that as writers it may be more prevalent because this is OUR dream. We've wanted this since we were little kids. To see someone else achieve the dream we've been so diligently struggling to achieve breaks our hearts just a little.  Think about it. We are in a day and age in which we can check each others blog followers, twitter followers, amazon reviews and book rankings. It's easy to become jealous (and obsessed). So what do we do? How do we overcome and slay the green-eyed monster? The first thing I suggest is wishing other writers well. Congratulate them. Yep, it will be hard. But not only will it help suppress the green-eyed monster, but you will feel better about the way you handled the situation. Use their success stories to spur you into creating a success story for yourself (it will be hard, but it can be done). Think about karma for a minute. If you believe, at all, that what goes around comes around, why then would you want to tear down another writer's achievements? The second thing we need to remember is that the only person we are hurting by being envious and jealous and petty is ourselves. Will the other person even know? Will it affect their future success even if they did? Nope. No matter how jealous you get or how angry you are, it won't change a thing. They will keep doing what their doing. So what's the point? There isn't one. A third thing we need to remember is that this isn't a competition against other writers. It isn't. I can't look at it that way, because if I did, I would crawl up in a little ball and never write again. Because here is the cold hard facts: THERE WILL ALWAYS BE SOMEONE BETTER THAN YOU. That fact will never change. Even when you think you are the biggest fish in the pond, some bigger fish will swim by and swallow you whole. For me, the only person I will compete against is myself. What can I do better? How can I make my mark in the world? What will work for me? Oh, it's going to be hard! The green-eyed monster doesn't like being controlled. But the best thing we can do is applaud other writers efforts, spread the love and joy, and when the time comes, hopefully that love and joy will be reciprocated. Because no matter where you are on the ladder of writing success, there is someone on a rung higher than you--BUT there is always someone on a rung lower. So reach down and lift them up and keep climbing. Who knows? Maybe because of your kindness, someone ahead of you might reach down and offer their hand to you :) How do you beat the green-eyed monster into submission? What works for you? What advice have I missed? Please leave a comment and let me know what you think.
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 1. Don't give up. 2. Don't EVER give up. 3. Giving up isn't an option. (I gave this 3 steps because it's SO important to achieving success). 4. Hold onto the dream. Hold it tight. 5. Make realistic goals and go for it. Once you achieve that goal, move to the next goal. Take it in bite size steps. 6. Remember you're a writer first and foremost. You can't achieve writing success if you don't write. So write.  7. Remember, why you write. Remember the joy.
8. Success will not fall into your lap. Put in the work. Give it all you have. 9. Don't measure your success against anyone else. Success is subjective anyway. Create your own definition. 10. Remember, overnight success takes ten or more years--for almost EVERYONE. (Those who do achieve overnight success don't count. We hate those people. They're not even real people anyway. AND, those people only account for roughly 1% of the successful people out there. The other 99% never gave up and worked hard to get where they are). What is your goal for this week--make it realistic. Please share in the comment section below. Not only will this cement your goal in your mind, but help others to set realistic goals for themselves. My realistic goal: write another chapter on Survivor Roundup. I'm stuck, but I will plow through and write it. I can do it. If I can get my mind to cooperate and write that stinkin' chapter, then I will feel successful. (Bite sized success).   The tree is decorated, lets all gather round and sing some not so well known Christmas songs such as the one below. All together now, lets sing SEXY AND I KNOW IT, while watching flashing lights. What a fun way to kick off the holiday season! It always puts me in a holiday mood! Christmas is always SO funny! Let's watch some videos together and have a good chuckle. Oh, the fire feels so delightful! May your dreams of a white Christmas come true!    Merry Christmas, Everyone!   Between getting our words down on paper and then trying to get someone (agents, publishers, READERS, anyone) to care about those words, we may come to a cross point in which we say, "Is this even worth it? Why in the world am I doing this to myself? I think I'll take some medicine to numb the voices and just go back to bed. Forget it. I'm done." *sticks out tongue and blows a raspberry at the world*
I've been there myself, many a time. But each day, I put myself back in front of the laptop and write. Even on days when I don't want to.(I don't wanna, I don't wanna, I don't wanna). Why? Why do I put myself though this craziness? Well, I'm still trying to understand it myself. And though I don't have a clear reason why I keep plugging along (I'm a masochist. I'm schizophrenic. Like Lady Ga-Ga, I was born this way), I do know several reasons why some writers give up: Reason #1: Writing is hard. It is. The writing process, at times, can be incredibly fun and rewarding. When the words flow and nearly write themselves, it's amazing. It's almost a high type of feeling. A rush. But there are other times, many times, in which writing just plain sucks--the words do not come; or the words DO come, but they are crap; editing (it's a pain in the butt, but SO necessary. Do not skip this step. Just saying); promoting and marketing (UUUGGGHHH); and then coming up with another great idea. Oh the pressure! No wonder I feast on lots of migraine pills, chocolate, and caffeine. Reason #2: Rejection. It is NO fun whatsoever to be rejected by agents, publishers, or readers. Rejection stings like a sucker punch to the groin (for men) or to the heart (for women). I mean, you've slaved over your masterpiece, worked hours and hours (years and years) on your craft, and now you have this amazing story and (drum roll) . . . no one wants to read it. Or at least it feels that way. With each rejection letter that comes in from agents and publishers or less than favorable reviews from readers, you begin to wonder if you've just wasted your life creating something no one cares about (I should have bought a subscription to Netflix and watched all the seasons of NCIS, House, and Dexter instead--people talk about that stuff). Everyone hates me. Maybe I really do suck. We internalize the rejection to point of letting it cripple us. Reason #3: Fear of failure (The "what if's"). This kind of goes along with being rejected, but not entirely. Sometimes the fear of failure is so overwhelming, so terrifying, that a writer would rather quit than actually submit their work to anyone--beta reader, agent, ANYONE. To stand in front of the world naked (because that's what it feels like) with your book in your hands is scary. It is. I relate it to standing in the middle of Times Square in New York, without a stitch of clothing on. Terrifying. My hope is to get more cat calls than rotten tomatoes or heckling sent my way. But there is no guarantee of that happening. For all I know, people will only focus on my cellulite and stretch marks and not the fact I have a pretty nice smile and a laugh in my eyes. This is the chance I take. This is the chance we ALL take. *a shiver of fear just ran down my spine*. Also, questions like: What if I become a laughing stalk? What if only my mother buys it? What if, out of all the KABILLIONS of writers in the world, I become just another obscure writer? What if? What if? What if? Then we think it is better to quit than to know for sure. When I posted this question on Facebook and Twitter, these were the three responses I received in one form or another. Mostly, people are afraid of failure. No one wants to fail, whether it be writing or anything else. For many, this our dream and to fail at achieving our dream would be near that of experiencing a death of sorts. In the Writer's Digest January 2012 issue, Jack Brickman, a novelist, said this, "All of us are scared: of looking dumb, of running out of ideas, or never selling our copy, of not getting noticed. We fiction writers make a business of being scared, and not just of looking dumb. Some of these fears may never go away, and we may just have to learn to live with them." I think the biggest thing we need to remember is why we write in the first place. I know I made light of this in the opening paragraphs as to why I write, but in actuality, I write because I have to. I can't think of a time in which I didn't write. It's a part of who I am. I hope people will want to read what I wrote. I hope people will LIKE what I wrote. But regardless, I will keep on writing. Just like breathing. Just like sleeping. It's engrained in me. Miss Snark on her blog had this to say, "Publication may be nice but it's not the only reward.The very act of writing is its own reward. It teaches you (if you pay attention) how to see the world through different eyes; how to wield language skilfully; how to organize a persuasive presentation. You recognize that writing is a creative art and brings you joy. You recognize that doing something difficult over and over again, and trying your utmost to improve is a worthy endeavor even if you fall short of your goal. You recognize that these moments of despair or frustration or fear are part of the process, and will make the achievement of your goal just that much sweeter."( Posted by Miss Snark 2/20/2007). So here are my 3 main reasons why you should never give up: 1) Remember why you write. If you are writing for fame and fortune, then I guess you better get out now. But if you are writing because you love the written word, or you feel as though you have a story to tell and want to share it with people, however many that will be, THEN you must keep on writing. If it make you happy, then do it. Nothing else matters. None of it. Not the rejections. Not the lack of readers. None of it. Write because you have to. 2) We are ALL afraid. There is not one writer/author out there who doesn't tremble in their boots now and again. But if we give into our fears we will NEVER achieve any kind of success. We need to kick the inner critic to the curb, push the hairy butt of doubt off our chests, and go for it. We can't let fear rule us. We are given only this one life to live and we need to make the most of it. I want to make the most of it. If I don't go for it, and push fear aside, then I will never know if I could have reached my dream. You won't either. Fear sucks. That is a given. But don't ever let it stop you from going after what you want. 3) Writing is hard. But wait, you say, that was a reason you gave for writers give to up. Why are you saying it should be a reason to keep going? Because nothing that is worth anything comes easy. You put in the work, you will reap the rewards. If writing were easy, then noone would applaud your efforts, ever. Everyone would be a writer (I know it feels like that is the case, but it isn't). It's hard to become a doctor. It's hard to become a great ballerina. It's hard to be a construction worker. It's hard to be a waitress. It's hard to be a fireman, cop, EMT, computer programmer, chef, dog groomer, you name it. It's all hard. Why then should writers be given a pass? We shouldn't. We wouldn't want that for ourselves. The harder it is to get what we want, and the harder we work to achieve it, the more we will be grateful for the success we attain. It's humbling, really. I don't think, if we are honest with ourselves, that we would want the writing experience to be any other way than it is. Am I right? At the top of my blog is my writing motto. I will be successful. I will taste it. Maybe not today or tomorrow or a year from now, but success will be mine. I'm pretty determined to find out what flavor success tastes like. I hope you want to find out what it tastes like too. I wish you all the best of luck and it is my hope that if becoming an author is your dream, your passion, that you will NEVER give up. Please share your reason why you write and why you won't give up in the comment section below. Not only will this cement in your mind why you must keep going, but will also help others who may be struggling with the very decision to push onward or to push up daisies when it comes to their own writing. Grumpy Bulldog is hosting the BAH HUMBUG blogfest where we list 12 things about this merry holiday season that annoys us. Boy, do I have a few. (Note: I do love Christmas. I do. But there are some aspects of the holiday that drive me bonkers. So let's dive in).  Reason #12: Family Christmas letters. I'd get those in a card from a few relatives or friends and feel like crap. My family did NOTHING cool this year. We are boring. Thanks for telling me how awesome your family is and how non-awesome mine is. AND, I don't care about your dog's surgery or how Uncle Fred had a prostate exam. I don't need to know these things. OH, and these type of letters shouldn't be more than a page long at most. So stop it with the multi-page letter. I won't read it.  Reason #11: To go along with that, Christmas cards. I LOVE receiving them. It makes me feel special. But I HATE having to write out Christmas cards and mail them. It's gotten to the point in which my dear husband is the one to pick up the cards and envelopes and stamps. If his side of the family wants a card, he has to do this task himself. My poor family, on the other hand, may get a card every other year or so. It depends on my mood. I hate having to search for addresses and licking envelops is gross.  Reason #10: I hate strings of Christmas lights. I mean I love the cheery glow and ambiance feel they provide. But I hate it when you get all the lights up on the tree, get the sucker decorated and beautiful, and then two days later a whole string of lights go out. Poop. This year, I left the dead string on the tree. I didn't care. So we have one section of tree that is not lit up. I wasn't about to yank all the ornaments and ribbons off the tree to redecorate. Nope.  Reason #9: Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer. This movie scared me as a child. I still don't like it. Weird animation and the abominable snowman made me hate this weird movie. I don't watch it anymore. I refuse.  Reason #8: I don't like this movie either. Same reason as #9.  Reason #7: I went into Target this year on Halloween day to pick up something for my son's costume that he was missing. It wasn't even noon yet and the staff had cleared off most of the Halloween shelves and was putting up Christmas decorations. Christmas music was playing over the speakers. Christmas comes to early.  Reason #6: I don't like cold weather. I really don't like snow--shoveling it or driving in it. Bluck. Snow. I have a super steep driveway (I know, my own fault) and if even a smidge of snow falls, I can't drive up or down it without shoveling and throwing down salt. It's death defying as well.  Reason #5: The bell ringers. They are at every store I go to. They look at me like a loser for not dropping money in their bucket. I can't put money in that bucket every time I go to the store. That adds up. So I don't make eye contact.  Reason #4: Christmas caroling. I don't like walking around the neighborhood, in the cold, singing. This is not fun for me. Yet, someone always wants to do it and thinks it would cheer up the widows. It would cheer them up. I know. But I'd rather take them a plate of cookies.  Reason #3: Buyers remorse. Why, oh why, did I buy the set of drums for my 3 yr old? Why did I think that was a good idea? Shoot me now.  Reason #2: Crappy gifts. I tend to get them. I've even been known to give a few (unintentional--I think I'm awesome). See my blog post where I received my worst Christmas gift ever from MY SECRET LOVER no less.  Reason #1: Spending money I do not have to buy things no one really needs anyway. Then spending the NEW YEAR paying off my credit cards. Such joy! What drives you nuts about the holidays?
 Of course, the people who are reading this post are NOT jerks. It's that whole "preaching to the choir" syndrome. If you're reading this, you're probably doing everything right. So pat yourself on the back. If you do ANY of the following--STOP IT! Just stop. It's not cool. I don't like it and I'm certain I'm not the only one who thinks so either. So kudos to you for reading and wanting to put your jerkhood behind you. The ones who SHOULD be reading this post probably never will because they are (let's say it all together) JERKS! Yesterday I weeded down those people I follow on twitter. I had to. I follow a lot of people (I love people) and I don't want my stream littered with nonsense that take away from my building relationships with people who interact and have something interesting to say. Or otherwise, the cool people. Cool people are awesome. Jerk people, not so much. My pet peeve #1 has to be Direct Messaging me (DM'ing) on twitter to buy your crap. I don't even care what kinda crap you're selling me. Could be great crap for all I know and I'm probably missing out, but if I follow you and you instant DM me and say "BUY MY BOOK!" or "Check out my blog!" I won't do it. I know some people who have gone so far as to unfollow someone who does this. I haven't done that. I like to give chances, but I'm telling you, you have a long road to walk to get back in my good graces. Actually, I've gotten to a point I don't even check my DM's anymore. Such a waste. So don't do this! This is bad. Oh, and DON'T auto DM anyone about anything. I hate this. Don't DM me and say thanks for following you and that you look forward to my tweets--crap, you didn't even have the decency to write it and make it unique to me. I see it for what it is. Pet peeve #2 ONLY tweeting about your book and links to your book or book reviews. That's it. Nothing else. No fun. All business. People who don't interact and only tweet these types of messages will get the axe from me. Don't be a spammer. Don't try and sell ANYTHING with this method. It makes you look sad and desperate. I want to know you as a person, as an author. Tell me about your kids school plays or about the crappy meal you made for dinner. Tell me what books you're reading (love that) or better yet, tell me a joke. This is what I relate to--relationship building. Then, after I get to know you, I will probably give your book a try or buy your steampunk jewlery. Talk to me. That's all I want. Pet peeve #3 Retweeting EVERYTHING! Oh, that is annoying. Don't get me wrong, I love a good RT. I, myself, love to RT other people's comments IF IT APPLIES AND IS AWESOME. But I don't RT to simply RT. When your whole feed is one RT after another--POOF, you are gone. You're adding nothing to the twitterverse by doing this. Pick and choose. AND if I have built a relationship with you and you RT something by someone else, I will most likely click on it. If you liked it, then heck, I need to check it out. But RTing and RTing tells me you have nothing to say--nothing of your own anyway. What a waste. Pet peeve #4 What the heck is with all the hashtags (#)? When a tweet has more hashtags in it than words, you've lost me. When the tweet says something like "Hey guys! #kindle #horror #romance #YA #book #amwriting" you have just officially ticked me off! I say two hashtags and no more. Beyond two it just becomes annoying. Pet peeve #5 Retweeting the same thing over and over and over (not to be confused with #3). I'm talking same link, same quote, etc... Okay, I know I can be a bit this way. I don't like it done to me, so I'm doing my best to pull back on this as well. I get that tweets have a 30 second life span and so you need to retweet often if you want your link seen by more than a few people. I get that. BUT every five minutes retweeting the very same thing is NUTS. Space it out little. Once an hour maybe, but no more than that (anyone out there have a better guideline on this?) And for the love of all that's good in the world, do not retweet your own tweet--that is dumb! Pet peeve #6 The people who follow you and then you follow them back ONLY to find out they unfollowed you in the meantime? That's rude! Poof, you are gone. Pet peeve #7 I'm not a prude by any means, but I'm not into a whole lot of swearing or looking at your twitter app that is just a picture of your boobs or cleavage. You're a goner when you do that kind of stuff. Oh, and anything racist or sexist is out, too. Just cause you can drop an F bomb or call someone a bleepity bleep on twitter doesn't mean you should. Think about it. You will offend people. Also, remember that any tweet you post is now in the cyber universe FOREVER. Be careful. I love twitter. I've met some amazing people there that I wouldn't have met otherwise. I think it great for networking and socializing. When done well, it can be a great tool. Do any of the above though, and you're nothing but a big old jerk. And no one wants to be a jerk--yet, there are a whole lot of them out there. So don't add to the jerk population. Be cool. Be yourself. Have fun and interact. What things tick you off in twitterville? What are your pet peeves AND what have you seen done well? Examples?  Poor Ralphie! (The Christmas Story) We've all received one. That glorious, beautifully wrapped present that exudes love, magic, and holiday joy--only to be opened to reveal a gift so awful it causes us to die a little inside. I'm talking the dreaded handmade sweater, the talking toilet paper roll, the Christmas holiday decoration given to us ON Christmas day so that we have to wait a whole year to enjoy it, the wallet that looks like bacon (yes folks, there is a wallet that looks like bacon. I'm half tempted to buy it), the half a bottle of aspirin with a bow on top, any kind of salt and pepper shaker, or the ever so fun Chia Pet in all it's forms. We ALL have one of those stories. And if you don't, well it's coming! Just you wait and see.  For me, it came in a box, delivered by the postman, marked, "From your Secret Lover". Since I only had one lover, it was quite easy to narrow it down to that of my husband. What a guy! It made me all giddy inside. I wondered what it could be? I shook that box, but couldn't for the life of me figure out what he had bought. It had to be something pretty special to have Amazon print out a tag that said "From your Secret Lover!" I was certain it was filled with all kinds of awesomeness inside.  Told you. Bacon wallet. He didn't wrap it. He just put it under the tree as-is, but I didn't mind. I liked looking at the address label, so it was all good. I was all excited. I even told my friends about my "From your Secret Lover" box asking them to speculate as well. Jewelery? I didn't think so. It was an average, medium sized box. Clothes? Again I didn't think so. It felt too heavy to be clothes. I just couldn't wait for Christmas morning to find out.  Finally, Christmas arrived. Our children were all a buzz and filled to the brim with glee as they raced each other to the tree and began to open their various gifts.
But my eye was on my box. Forget that there were other gifts under the tree with my name on them, I wanted to know what was in that box. I'm not good with surprises. I'm terrible, actually. Don't ask me to keep a secret because I'm horrible at it. Well, it was time to open my gift. My husband handed it to me. Smiles all on my face. Guess what was inside? A book. Now, I love books. I have a mighty fine collection of books scattered through out my house. But this wasn't just any book. This was a EVERYTHING I NEEDED TO ORGANIZE YOUR HOME book. Yep. My secret lover bought me a book on organization. Yeah. Exactly. (Women, you're probably like, "Oh my gosh! He didn't?" and men, you're like, "Dude. That guy is so screwed"). Tip number one: Do NOT buy your significant other a book to organize your home even if you really think your home could benefit from it. AND do not label it from your secret lover unless you no longer want to have this particular lover in your life. Tip number two: Do NOT give a book about organization to your significant other when you, yourself, are a mini hoarder. Tip number three: There is NO good holiday or occasion to give your loved one a book on organization. None. This is the kind of book that a person has to buy for themselves. It can NOT be given as a gift to ANYONE. (To play devil's advocate here, my husband had heard the author of this book on NPR, National Public Radio, and thought this author had some amazing ideas. My husband thought he was doing a great thing. This was many years ago. I'm still bringing it up. So as you can see, it was not. I never even opened the cover of that book. Never read it). Since then, my husband has bought me some wonderful presents--Kindle, jewelery, cameras, vacations. So he has redeemed himself. He's a good guy (he wanted me to point this out). So, what was the WORST present you have ever received? Can you top a book on how to organize your home? I'd love to hear about it.  Writing the book was only the beginning, the tip of the iceberg, if you will. Now the REAL work (the uncomfortable part of this whole writing gig) comes into play. Put on your working gloves and your hard hat, it’s time to get busy. Because we all know that books don’t sell themselves. They just don’t. That’s a given. You can’t write a book, sit back, and wait for it to be noticed—regardless if you self-published, used a small press, or went the traditional route. To sit back and do nothing will equal certain failure. The adage, “If you build it, they will come” only holds true in movies about dead baseball players. This approach does not work in real life. I promise.  You may be a genius (of course you are) and have written the best darn book the world will have ever seen, but unless you do some sort of fancy-shmancy kind of dance act with juggling balls, no one will ever know it exists. Sad, but true.
There are KABILLIONS (this is a made up statistic, but you get the gist) of books published and placed in the market each and every year. KABILLIONS. If you don’t believe me, hop on twitter for a few days. I used to think I was special because I wrote books and heard voices. Not so much anymore. EVERYONE in the world has written a book (or at least it feels that way). Sorry. This is sad but true, too. We have all been told that the success of any book will be up to its author. We ALL get that. We’ve heard it numerous times. And this is very, very true. But how do we go about becoming noticed? That is the million dollar question. There are many websites devoted to this very thing, but few have real, clear-cut ideas. A couple of things I’ve seen: 1) Set up a blog CHECK 2) Get a Facebook fan page CHECK 3) Set up a twitter account CHECK 4) Join Goodreads CHECK 5) Etc…ect… Here’s the problem with the above ideas (and not just these ones, but others as well): EVERYONE IS DOING THE SAME THING and we're all following other writers? How does that work exactly? Everyone is implementing the same advice on how to promote your book and so now when you go to most of these sites (especially twitter) all you see is “Buy my book!” “Check out my review!” “Look at my book trailer!” “Follow my blog tour!” This has become nothing but white noise for me. There is so much of it that I tend to ignore all of it. This isn’t just me either. Many feel this very same way. But this is what we are told to do. I have scoured hundreds of posts on promoting and marketing books and it’s nearly all the same advice. I have yet to find anything new to grasp onto as a golden nugget of genius. And that’s what I’m looking for—I want to do something different. I don’t want to become white noise that people skim over. That would totally suck. My book comes out in February and except for doing the same old-same old, I’ve got nothing. I guess I’ll be tweeting too. I’ll be ticking off the masses with my incessant tweets and posts about my book. Because even though these promotional tactics don’t work all that well, what other choice do I have? Say nothing? Do nothing? I can’t. Yes my book is about zombies and yes it is a little bizarre, but I like that corny book and I think others might enjoy it too. That’s my hope. So shutting-up isn’t an option. I just wish there was a better way to do it. I'm still looking. What do you think? Does this whole marketing stuff drive you crazy, too? What other choice do we have?  I had just finished NaNoWriMo on November 30th (barely squeaking by with 50, 346 words) and decided that I might not keep up the crazy pace of writing 1667 words a day, BUT I would write consistently and not stop. That was a promise! Well, Mother Nature had other plans. December 1st, around 2am, the rip-roaring winds of hell came tumbling in. Our house shook. We could hear things crashing outside. HUGE winds made the ceiling fan above our bed swing side to side and I swore the house was going to cave in on top of us. (We live on a mountain side, so the winds came over the top and just blasted us). When we woke the next morning, we found most of our roof shingles blown throughout the neighborhood (sorry neighbors) and our wooden fence along the back of our house, down and the fence on the north side of our house, down and the brand new gate (by our shed) ripped off the hinges. We lost rain gutters, and out trampoline is hanging half way over the fence into our neighbors yard. Then, to top it all off, we had no electricity. No heat. Without electricity, well, no writing was to be done. Which was okay, it was a bit too terrifying to write anyway. So instead, we packed the kids in the car (their schools had no electricity or heat and so I kept them home--eventually their schools sent the kids home early anyway) and we decided to go somewhere warm that had electricity. What better place than the Clark Planetarium--none, that's what! We have a family pass so we hung out for most of the day and watched several IMAX movies. That was our silver lining in this whole mess--we were safe and together and had a great time as a family (the planetarium was empty AND my kids learned stuff without knowing they learned stuff--which is the best way to learn STUFF--I have to trick those darn kids). I'm beginning to doubt any writing will get done today either. We're trying to get a hold of our insurance adjuster (a big joke) and the clean up is going to be an all day process. Maybe I will start up my writing goal NEXT week :) Enjoy our windy videos (ignore my squeaky, crazy voice and the fact I don't quite know how to videotape with my new iphone): |
My Face...Enjoy!
Ahh, the fruits of my labors...
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